Learn English – What does the slang word “hammered” actually mean

UPDATE

February 01, 2018, the OED has recently added the word swag in its dictionary. Oxford Online Dictionaries reports

A new entry has been added for swag, derived from swagger, and used in slang to denote ‘bold self-assurance in style or manner’, or ‘an air of great self-confidence or superiority’. The OED’s first citation for this particular sense comes from the track ‘December 4th’ on Jay-Z’s The Black Album (2003): ‘My self-esteem went through the roof, man. I got my swag.’ This is the fifth OED citation attributed to Jay-Z.

A glossarial example of the word from the previous year, in a self-described dictionary of hip-hop terminology, defined swag as simply ‘walk’.

ORIGINAL POST

(October 12, 2016)

“Obama displayed similar swag and bluster …”

In his sixth State of the Union Address, President Obama said:

_{We’re upholding the principle that bigger nations can’t bully the small — by opposing Russian aggression, supporting Ukraine’s democracy and reassuring our NATO allies. Last year, as we were doing the hard work of imposing sanctions along with our allies, some suggested that Mr. Putin’s aggression was a masterful display of strategy and strength. Well, today, it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters. That’s how America leads — not with bluster, but with persistent, steady resolve (Applause).
^{From whitehouse.gov, January 20, 2015}}

The swag appears to be a clipped form of swagger, which the article accuses President Obama of doing. In the speech, the ‘swag’ refers to America standing strong, unafraid of Russia, and determined to enforce sanctions. The bluster, according to the author, is Obama's words whose tone was possibly concealing a threat to Putin. The fact that Obama asserted America did not engage in bluster, was telling the audience that America was not afraid of taking further action if necessary.

bluster
talk intended to seem important or threatening but which is not taken
seriously and has little effect

swagger
to walk, esp. with a swinging movement, in a way that
shows that you are confident and think you are important
_{^{Cambridge Dictionary}}

You won't find it in a list of synonyms for "break", because lists of synonyms focus on just one sense of a word. The word "break" has many different senses, and "breaking bad" combines several unusual ones at once.

Basically, in the series title, it means "becoming bad": becoming a bad person or engaging in bad or violent behavior. But "break" in this sense has much richer connotations than "become"—which, of course, is why the show's creator chose to call it Breaking Bad and not Becoming Bad. Explaining connotations is hard, but here goes.

As your list of synonyms suggests, the primary sense of "break" is: "to sever into distinct parts by sudden application of force; to part by violence" [OED]. An extended sense is to break through a barrier, especially at the start or the end of a long process. To break ground is to begin digging into the ground, as the first step of constructing a building, or to begin digging in preparation to plant seeds in farmland, or metaphorically to undertake the first step of anything. When a pregnant woman breaks water, this means that the sac that holds the baby and amniotic fluid has burst, signifying that she will soon begin labor. Near a shoreline, a surf is said to break when it nears the shore and topples over.

Those extended senses all suggest some kind of important transition, where something "breaks" in the primary sense. Here are some more, which are closer to "breaking bad". To break free is to cross a barrier or burst through a bond that had previously constrained you; to escape. To break news is to tell someone the news for the first time. When the news itself is breaking, it's happening right now. When a storm breaks, a downpour of rain suddenly begins. The break of day is the moment when the Sun first appears above the horizon. To break even is to have your gains and your losses come out equal ("even"). If you are playing billiards, and the ball breaks left, that means it turns to the left instead of going straight.

Now are you starting to see how "break" stretches from its primary meaning toward something like "become"? The senses along the way are not completely forgotten; they're still suggested or evoked. This Time magazine article quotes Vince Gilligan, the lead writer of Breaking Bad, defining it as a Southern U.S. expression meaning "raising hell". But as the article notes, Gilligan's definition doesn't do justice to the full meaning of the term, which is probably impossible to define precisely. In the first episode, Jesse uses the phrase to refer to Walt's inexplicable change from a straitlaced, middle-aged high-school teacher into a budding criminal. That's the theme of the entire series, of course.

The OED offers this as definition 39c:

To happen, occur. slang (orig. U.S.)

and includes these illustrations:

"Things are breaking right for me."

"Everything'll break good."

So, breaking bad suggests something of the change of course of "breaking left" in pool, something of the transition into chaos of a "breaking" surf, and something of the end result as in "breaking even".

I can see why a translator would choose not to translate it, favoring instead a completely different title. What makes the title so expressive in English—the simultaneous resonance of many senses of break—makes it impossible to translate directly to another language.